Bluebook users rejoice! Harvard Law Review has now launched an online version of The Bluebook! That frustrating, maddening, vital authority on legal citation form had, back in my own time at
Harvard Law School, not a blue cover but a white cover. Insiders called it The Bluebook anyway, primarily because senior insiders called it The Bluebook, which I think was because at some distant period before any of us was born it had been blue. Outsiders, however, naturally named the book by its white cover, displaying their Outside-ness by calling it The Whitebook. Some years ago, the color of the cover reverted to blue, eliminating one ground for class distinction.
I really love The Bluebook. Once you master the basic rules, citation form becomes a graceful art. Distinctions in punctuation take on profound meaning. You learn to acknowledge your sources respectfully, with a thousand shades of obeisance.
Read the press release here.
Hat Tip: Legal Writing Prof Blog.
Posted by Mary Campbell Gallagher, J.D., Ph.D.
President, BarWrite® and BarWrite Press
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